Hmm..... looks like the Indian manned spacecraft is currently ahead of many of the American spacecrafts under design. However I don't have too many good things to say about it: the "Gemini / Soyuz DC on steroids" design is too limited in capability to do anything more than a few days of flying around in space (although this seems to be the point anyway), the rocket that it should go on has not log a full success since 2004 (!), and money for it is lacking (which means any human flights would be a decade away, as indicated by ISRO officials). Remember that even China took more than 10 years to get a man in space with the full support of the government....

I wonder why ISRO hasn't thought of contributing to the ISS program? It would have let them got a taste of human spaceflight experience before they go something bigger.....

Tests for sending India's first manned mission into space are in "advanced" stages with the Indian Air Force (IAF) developing necessary parameters for selection of suitable candidates.

The tests will need another year to get fully validated and the selection process of the people for the manned mission will begin after that, Director General Medical Services (Air), Air Marshal Anil Behl told PTI here today.

hazy ISRO OV from a presentation slide I found on the net. Guessing from the letters on the vehicle, It might be called MANAV (MANned Aerospace Vehicle) which is a Sanskrit word meaning Human being in English.

A clearer image after a lot of net research , MANAV is not for Manned aerospace vehicle. ISRO OV for comparision.

Here ya go - ran that MANAV image through a sharpener to reduce the blur.

This is the first time I've heard of this concept design. Any more details on it? What crew size would it accommodate? Why is that cylindrical section so long - what's in there?

Thanks sanman! I found this pic from the attached slide on ISRO tech roadmap by BN suresh. I could not find any further details. My guess is this vehicle is combination of front section or reentry crew module + middle section or orbital module + aft section of service module. This might be a long term plan of a manned space vehicle for conducting micro gravity experiments and exploration.

Hmm, unlike Soyuz or Dragonlab, I don't see any solar panels on this MANAV concept - I wonder why. Maybe it wasn't fleshed out enough. I think everybody else has solar panels on their orbital designs, if I'm not mistaken.

Hmm..... looks like the Indian manned spacecraft is currently ahead of many of the American spacecrafts under design.

Hrm? In reference to what? India has quite a ways to go before any such statements are worth while, thought I do wish them the best.

Oops..... it was meant to be a satire remark on how those Indian newspapers and even some people at ISRO speak of flying human in orbit and beyond as if they are already ready to go, when in fact such a decision hasn't been made yet and it won't reach its goal in at least this decade.....apparently it didn't work.

Hmm..... looks like the Indian manned spacecraft is currently ahead of many of the American spacecrafts under design.

Hrm? In reference to what? India has quite a ways to go before any such statements are worth while, thought I do wish them the best.

Oops..... it was meant to be a satire remark on how those Indian newspapers and even some people at ISRO speak of flying human in orbit and beyond as if they are already ready to go, when in fact such a decision hasn't been made yet and it won't reach its goal in at least this decade.....apparently it didn't work.

As part of pre project activities, drop test of full scale Crew Module were conducted successfully to understand the deceleration characteristics and validate the estimated values of ‘g’ level, touchdown velocity and depth of penetration. Scale models of Crew Module have been realised for heat transfer studies, plasma wind tunnel tests and aero-ballistic range tests were conducted. Mortar based parachute ejection and deployment tests carried out in single and clustered configuration. Environmental simulation chamber has been realised for testing of ECLSS functional modules and flight suit systems. Flight suit has been successfully tested in vacuum chamber for leak rate assessment and material compatibility undervacuum conditions.